Mitch Markovich

 ( 1944 Births ) 

Mitch Markovich (born August 19, 1944) is an American percussionist, composer, Music education, and clinician in the areas of Drum rudiment, marching percussion, drum and bugle corps, and marching band. He is best known for his intensive marching snare drum solo compositions and world record-setting performances, entitled "Tornado" and "Stamina", and for his percussion quartet composition entitled "Four Horsemen". Markovich's contributions to the style, notation, composition, and performance of percussion have endured over the last five decades.

He is the only person to have ever become both three-time consecutive perfect season National Champion, and the five-time consecutive perfect season Illinois State Snare Drum champion. He contributed to, or was directly responsible for twelve National and twenty-three State, Individual, and Group Championships in the drum and bugle corps marching percussion field. He was a marching member of the National Champion Chicago Cavaliers, and he has instructed, composed, and consulted with them and with other drum corps including the following: National Champion Chicago Royal Airs; the National Champion Argonne Rebels from Great Bend, Kansas; the Santa Clara Vanguard from California;the Nisei Ambassadors from Chicago and the Millstadt Crusaders from Illinois.

Markovich is currently a clinician and concert artist for Pearl Drums and the Evans Drumhead Company. He is a drum set specialist in many styles including rock, Latin, jazz, gospel music, and Contemporary christian music.

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Career

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Student career Mitch Markovich studied music at Indiana University under George Gaber, and at The American Conservatory of Music in Chicago under James Dutton. He studied briefly under Ludwig Drums Clinician and National Champion Frank Arsenault, whose likeness would be later depicted upon the covers of Markovich's Rudimental Contest Series. He received his Bachelor of Music Degree from Fort Hays State University.

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Teaching career Mitch Markovich first developed his international reputation in percussion, as a clinician and educational representative for the Ludwig Drums. He has taught and performed at major universities throughout the United States including Indiana University, Ohio State University, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas, the University of Missouri at Kansas City Conservatory of Music, the University of Wisconsin, and Northwestern University. He was the Head of the Percussion Department at Fort Hays State University. He has been on the faculty of the Joy School of Performing Arts.

He has headed clinics and performances at the International Festival of Percussion Art in Warsaw, Poland in 2004, and 2005. He was a featured clinician at the Percussive Arts Society International Conventions in Columbus, Ohio and at Nashville, Tennessee. He was clinician and guest soloist at the 2002 High School All-State Festival of Performance at Arizona State University. He was guest clinician and judge at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Mitch Markovich was a member of the National Championship winning Chicago Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps in the 1960s. He was the President of the National Association of Rudimental Drummers (N.A.R.D.) from 1976 to 1977. He has performed at the Civic Opera House, and with Ovation Records Percussion Pops Orchestra at Chicago's Orchestra Hall. Today, he conducts private lessons, is a Pearl clinician, is an endorser of Evans Drumhead, and serves in a number of Christian church bands and projects.

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Bibliography

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Musical Mitch Markovich is the composer of a ten-piece series titled Rudimental Contest Series, published in 1966. This collection of rudimental drum solo, , and ranges from "Easy" to "Difficult"; and it features various combinations of the snare drum, tenor drum, and bass drum.

The collection's greatest enduring impact upon percussion culture may be found in its more extremely athletically rigorous solos for marching snare drum, such as "Stamina" and "Tornado". Continuously used as audition and contest pieces over the last five decades, they are widely considered to be traditional standards. Notoriously difficult even for experts, these solos have served as authoritative benchmarking of physical performance and academic correctness. Gregg Bissonette cited "Tornado" as an advanced traditional standard piece, in the rudimental snare section of his training video titled Private Lesson.

Rudimental Contest Series

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Literature Mitch Markovich has authored many articles for the now defunct annual Ludwig Magazine, where he has actively detailed and encouraged the replication of his core techniques and introduced entirely new techniques. He has consistently assured players that his music is not physically impossible, given the optimal technique.

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Discography

1960	VFW Nationals Drum and Bugle Corps Finals	Briggs Stadium, Detroit, Michigan
1961	VFW Nationals Drum and Bugle Corps Finals
June 3, 1962	1962 Preview of Champions, Vol. 2	Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City, New Jersey
March 30, 1968	Civic Opera House	Chicago, Illinois (the source tape of Markovich's and Arsenault's solos was physically degraded, and thus disincluded from the CD)

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Reception

Rudimental Contest Series sources

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External links

• Official Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps website
• Drum Corps International

Categories: 1944 Births, Living People, 20th-century American Composers, 21st-century American Composers, 21st-century American Male Musicians, American Performance Artists, American Performers Of Christian Music, American Percussionists, Musicians From Chicago, 20th-century American Male Composers

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